If 2015 was our all-time low in hate speech
and fake news for electoral purposes, does 2019 promise to be better?
Government agencies, security agencies, media houses, and non-governmental
organisations have rolled out an all-out campaign against fake news and hate
speech especially as the elections approach. Yet, the rate of fake news and
hate speech does not seem to be abating.
For the media to lead or support the fight
against fake news and hate speech, it must first redeem itself. Within the last
one year, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has recorded and
sanctioned 260 cases of hate speech on radio and television. It has sanctioned
347 cases of unverifiable claims, which is a cousin of fake news. A few
examples will illustrate the need for the traditional media to address its own
recalcitrance on this subject. On 03 February, this year, the NBC warned TVC
(Lagos) for hate speech; barely a month after, TVC got a second warning for the
same offence.
About a week after the second warning, it
erred again and was fined N500,000. Express FM (Kano) was fined for hate speech
on 12 September, 2018. It was fined again for the same offence on 16 September,
and again on 17 September. Therefore, for the media, charity must begin at
home. Physicians, heal thyself. It is important for the traditional media
professionals to realise that many Nigerians in search of authentic information
turn to them. In the coming elections, as they have done in the past, people
will roam from website to website and from blog to blog, in search of
sensations.
After that, most people will turn to their
television, radio and newspaper (online or offline) for the real news.
Nigerians are getting wiser – many now know that these thousand websites that
spring up shortly before elections and disappear after are not to be taken
seriously. They know that anyone can tweet anything or post anything on
Facebook. They are expecting that the good old gatekeepers in the media
industry will again serve them well in the 2019 elections.
The National Broadcasting Commission, the
National Press Council, the News Agency of Nigeria, and other stakeholders
should lead us in the compilation of a national directory of hate words and expressions.
This should be updated constantly and be made available to the public. A
Europe-based organisation is currently doing this in 25 languages none of which
is a Nigerian language. We should compile our own directory. Then those who
will have committed hate speech in error will have a guide to consult. I have
the word of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Strategic
Partnership) of the University of Ibadan that our expert lexicographers in
Ibadan and the University of Ibadan Management are willing to participate in
this project.
Traditional media – offline and online –
should resume their role as agenda setters. In the fake news of the gay
community and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, one wondered: why would The
Nation and Vanguard be led by online sources whose existence is shifty and
character dubious? Who should depend on whom for leadership? As traditional
media return once again to the basics of journalism, they would be immune to
the onslaught of fake news and hate speech. The basics of “if in doubt, leave
out” and “if in doubt, find out” should be more strictly observed in the coming
elections. Only a redeemed media can redeem the nation from drowning in the
turbulence of malicious misinformation and hate mongering that is already
gathering.
Part of that redemptive role in the coming
general elections would be working as a counterforce to fake news and hate
speech. Media organisations could have an item on their website menu named
“FAKE NEWS”, like a flying banner where citizens in search of truth can check
and find the latest fake news. Countering fake news should be news. And as we
zoom in on the elections, we should realise where fake news and hate speech
will cluster: you will find them around campaign issues, voting schedules,
distribution of voting materials, disruption of voting, and election results.
Traditional media should specifically vet any reports around these “flash
points” of fake news. And when they are sure that the result is genuine, they
should vet again.
There is need for partnership across media
platforms and organisations for truthful and hate-free reporting in the coming
elections. Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism has been at the
forefront of this kind of partnership with its dubawa.org. Dubawa works with
other fact-check organisations to debunk false claims and fake news. On its
website, one would find scores of fake news and how they are debunked.
Dubawa.org also allows citizens to interact with it thereby becoming part of
the debunking partners and collaborators in sanitising the society.
We need to broaden this kind of partnership
and set up an alert system to which all partner media houses can subscribe.
Once a fake news item or hate speech “breaks” the alert informs every subscriber
to the outbreak. Even INEC should be a partner on this. Finally, and this is to
my constituency: beyond the 2019 elections, our communication curricula must be
urgently reviewed to better equip our products with the skills and sensitivity
implied in the foregoing discussion. Such a review must address not just the
skills, but the heart and the head.
Infoprations’ Note: An
extract from the text of the 13th Annual Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria
(FRCN) Lecture delivered by Professor Ayobami Ojebode, Department of
Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
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